# Data Overview

TimeTonic exports timesheet, project, and team activity data that's ready for payroll, billing, resource planning, and project analytics. The exact tables and columns available depend on your workspace setup and user permissions.

## Common table types

| Table Type    | Purpose                                               | Common Use                                      |
| ------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------- |
| Timesheets    | Logged hours by employee, date, and project           | Payroll processing, billable hours tracking     |
| Projects      | Project details including budget, timeline, and team  | Project profitability, resource allocation      |
| Team Activity | Summary of who logged time and when                   | Team productivity reports, audit trails         |
| Tasks         | Individual tasks with time estimates and actual hours | Workload distribution, project scheduling       |
| Reports       | Pre-aggregated summaries                              | Quick dashboards without further transformation |

## Common metrics

#### Time tracking metrics

* **Total hours logged** — Sum of all hours tracked across projects or team members
* **Billable hours** — Hours marked as billable or chargeable to clients
* **Overtime hours** — Hours exceeding standard work week
* **Project hours** — Total hours allocated to a specific project
* **Resource utilization** — Percentage of time allocated vs. available capacity

#### Project metrics

* **Budget vs. actual spend** — Planned project cost vs. hours logged at rate
* **Project completion rate** — Percentage of tasks or hours completed
* **Average task duration** — Estimated vs. actual hours per task
* **Team member utilization** — Hours logged per person as percentage of availability

## Common dimensions

#### Time dimensions

* **Date/Week/Month** — Time period for grouping logged hours
* **Employee or contractor** — Who logged the time
* **Project** — Which project received the hours
* **Task** — Specific task assigned
* **Status** — Approved, pending, draft, submitted

#### Business dimensions

* **Department** — Organizational unit
* **Cost center** — Internal billing or allocation code
* **Client** — External customer or internal department
* **Billable flag** — Whether hours are charged to a customer

## Use cases by role

{% tabs %}
{% tab title="Finance & Payroll" %}
Export timesheet data to calculate payroll, track labor costs by project, and reconcile billable vs. non-billable hours. Use Append to combine multiple months or employees, then feed results to your payroll system or accounting software. Use Join to add employee rates or cost center mappings for accurate costing.
{% endtab %}

{% tab title="Project Managers" %}
Track project budgets, monitor hours against estimates, and measure team capacity. Pull project and task-level data, then use Aggregate to summarize hours by project, team member, or phase. Join with project budget tables to create variance reports (budget vs. actual).
{% endtab %}

{% tab title="Resource Managers" %}
Plan team capacity, identify over-allocation, and balance workload across projects. Export team activity and utilization metrics, then use Aggregate to calculate average hours per resource and availability gaps. Join with employee information for headcount and role-based analysis.
{% endtab %}

{% tab title="Executives & Analysts" %}
Build dashboards showing labor costs, project profitability, and team productivity. Send TimeTonic data to Looker Studio for live dashboards or to Claude/ChatGPT for automated insights on utilization trends, cost overruns, and resource bottlenecks.
{% endtab %}
{% endtabs %}

## Platform-specific notes

* **Views matter** — If your table has multiple views (e.g., filtered by date range, status, or team), make sure you select the right one. Different views can have different column sets.
* **Permissions** — The API key you use must have permission to access the workspace and tables you select. If you see "Permission denied" errors, check your TimeTonic role and API key settings.
* **Data freshness** — TimeTonic data is pulled at the time you run the data flow. Scheduled refreshes will export the latest data from your workspace.
* **Time zone handling** — Verify that dates and times in your export match your workspace time zone. TimeTonic may store times in UTC; check your workspace settings if you notice discrepancies.
* **Large datasets** — If exporting thousands of rows, the data flow may take longer. Consider filtering by date range or using views that limit the result set.
* **Custom fields** — If your tables include custom fields or metadata, they will appear as columns in the export. Column names come from your TimeTonic configuration.